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Integrating crosscutting themes is another common area found in many proposal application forms. Donor agencies require applying NGOs to submit information as to how they are going to integrate certain themes into their projects. This is a mandatory requirement and all applicant NGOs have to work on it.
So what are these crosscutting themes? These themes can vary from one donor to another. Common crosscutting themes that donors want to be integrated into projects are gender, environment, governance and sometimes, even HIV and AIDS. Even if your project is about provision of better water facilities for the community, you need to integrate it with the crosscutting themes.
The idea behind getting these themes integrated is that an inclusive and effective effort is carried out by NGOs while implementing the project. A project where an NGO distributes solar-powered lights has to ensure that women are benefited equally from it. In such a case, you are integrating the crosscutting theme of gender into your project. Similarly, any project you are implementing should not negatively impact the environment. For this reason, you need to include environment as a crosscutting theme.
When writing about the crosscutting themes, mention how you are integrating them into your project and how the beneficiaries will be affected by it. Any product or service you are offering to the community should be equally accessed by both women and men. Besides, it is also important that any leadership process introduced in the community has both women and men involved in taking the lead.
For a crosscutting theme such as environment, you can have an environment policy and you are educating your staff and the community to ensure that there is minimum impact over the environment from your intervention.
